MUSINGS FROM SACRED SCRIPTURE

​‘Are you the one who is to come, or must we wait for someone else?’
Luke 7:19.

This urgent question posed to Messiah by John the Baptist is really most extraordinary, given John’s conscious role in the scheme of salvation. When active in his ministry it was palpably obvious to the Lord’s forerunner that he was to announce the advent of Jesus the Christ of God. He was the herald of this stupendous news and his mind was illuminated as to the essence of the gospel. The Lamb of God sent for our salvation was actually in the midst of men. Solitude in prison, and facing the prospect of execution, caused John to ruminate exceedingly deeply about the situation in which he found himself. He began to compare Isaiah’s portrait of the Servant of the Lord with the reports he received about Jesus. For John, there was one glaring omission in the message and behavior of Jesus that aroused suspicion as to his authenticity. Jesus’ rendition of the Messianic prophecy went along the following lines: ‘The spirit of the Lord has been given to me, for he has anointed me. He has sent me to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and to the blind new sight, to set the down-trodden free, to proclaim the Lord’s year of favor.’ Jesus continued, ‘This text is being
fulfilled today even as you listen’ [Luke 4:18-19].
   But John’s keen ear detected the Savior’s alteration to his Messianic assignment when he recalled the full content of Isaiah’s original and entire proclamation, which ran, ‘The spirit of the Lord is on me. He has sent me to bring the news to the afflicted, to soothe the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to captives, release to those in prison, to proclaim the year of favor from Yahweh, and a day of vengeance from our God, to comfort all who mourn . . . [Isaiah 61:1-2]. Strikingly, Jesus omitted to refer to the approaching vengeance of the Lord. To John, it seemed that Jesus was unwarrantably blameworthy for this huge editorial adjustment. Jesus had clearly excised a powerful element, strongly emphasized, in John’s given warnings from the Spirit of God. John’s dominant message was severe warning concerning the reality and imminence of divine judgment and painful punishment for sin unacknowledged and for which there had not been any expression of sincere repentance, i.e. ongoing sin that failed to meet with the contrition of the convicted heart.
   John felt the wrath of God boiling within his most animated spirit of righteousness, justice and personal holiness - evil appalled him and he knew that Messiah was conditioned to remove all wickedness from human nature. The preaching of the forerunner, and that of the foretold remover of wickedness, evidently clashed, but only temporarily, as we now know. Jesus adverted to reluctant wrath in divine dealings with the human race. Assuredly, his anger, his just indignation, will be swift ultimately, when our bold rebelliousness at last diminishes his amazing forbearance and causes his avenging hand to strike. However, judgment is his strange, unaccustomed work. Mercy is his preferred mode of dealing with men e.g. “O God, who declares thy almighty power most chiefly in shewing mercy and pity’ [collect for the Eleventh Sunday after Trinity].
   Divine grace is the most powerful force we shall ever encounter, given that the Lord must drag us to himself and that “drag” is the true biblical sense of the verb “draw”. The saving love of God, in wooing sinners home to divine favor, may contain an element of apparent violence in order to free us from our harsh captivity to the triple lock of self, sin and Satan. We resist the gospel by nature. But such divine violence is the violence of love exercising commanding determination to rescue and redeem the beloved from imminent danger. We witness holy irony when it comes to those chosen to enter the kingdom that these are encouraged to break into the kingdom in an attitude of absolute insistence. “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it” [Matthew 11:12]. Let us each “lay hold”!

​RJS

MUSINGS FROM SACRED SCRIPTURE

‘The Son of Man’ he said ‘is destined to suffer grievously, to be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and to be put to death, and to be raised up on the third day.’
Luke 9:22

All the events of Easter were foreknown by the Savior. This key point emphasizes the resolute love that Jesus had for all those who were given to him by the Father. The Son of Man was determined to fulfill the will of God, though the cost was enormous and terrifying through the duration of his passion. Jesus knew he would rise again and that his chosen ones would be marvelously saved. He yielded himself to the certainty of the divine purpose. There would be no reduction of the horrendous suffering he must undergo and every minute would be fearfully anticipated and the actuality unbelievably agonizing. As Isaiah so vividly describes the bitter plight of our Redeemer ‘he was struck with affliction by God’ [53:4]: ‘It was Yahweh’s good pleasure to crush him with pain [53:10].
     Here we find that God’s good pleasure is not always equivalent to his enjoyment. His ‘good pleasure’ is the reality and result of his sure plan crafted by his infinite wisdom. Absolute sovereignty is his incontestable prerogative. We cannot envision how the Father’s heart was rent by the Son’s rejection by men, and the crucifixion engineered by Israel’s religious leadership. Human rejection of the sweet and holy Lord Jesus was the crystallization of all the hatred and hostility of our race toward the Lord and the precious One whom he sent. Divine Majesty came among us as Mercy and we repudiated its arrival in the gravest rebelliousness ever perpetrated and recorded in the annals of the universe. Every planet in our solar system, and far beyond, must have trembled on Good Friday.  The enormity of our crime is beyond measure. We foolish, contemptible creatures of dust arrayed ourselves against the authority and beauty of Paradise; the awesome Ruler, Governor of all, seen and unseen. We were happy to facilitate the suffering of the Son of Man.
     But God, not for a moment, was shaken at our furious assault. Through everything that occurs he is always Commander of events and effectually advancing his purpose. Our hatred for Jesus was turned to the  healing our breach with him because of Adam’s Fall. He deigned to quell our savagery toward him through his intended sacrifice as the Lamb of God, the Prince of Peace, who, more powerful than death, rose again and by his substitutionary death and triumphant resurrection effected justification for all those that trust him as bearer of sin and donor of life.  
     Contemplation of the great facts of Easter is enthralling and potentially endless. Every word of the Easter narrative demands that we pause upon it. One tends to read Scripture too hurriedly, publicly and privately. A Happy and Holy Easter.

RJS

MUSINGS FROM SACRED SCRIPTURE

He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock.
Luke 6:48

Our Solid Foundation Is The Rock of Holy Scripture; The Word. Divine Speech.

Jesus reveals his direct identification with the Word of God; a captivating theme echoed
constantly throughout the apostolic witness as to his Person and accomplishments. When Jesus speaks, or enunciates a statement, God speaks. He is the Word incarnate and the exact expression of the divine mind. All verbal authority is his. He is truth in speech and in character. None can gainsay his fidelity to the Father [but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son. Hebrews 1:23]. Jesus is Eternal Truth and his word is indestructible. In the gospel announcements the Lord’s intent is to avoid our destruction. We humans build our lives on instruction which may be good or bad. To protect our lives we need to ensure that the advice we follow is absolutely sure.
     Jesus identifies the danger of superficial religion and its glib confession. Sinful oaths insulting the divine glory are manifestly evil, but easy going Christianity that references the name of Christ with a thoughtless and casual attitude, much repeated in an offhand manner, can be offensive to God as outright blasphemy. “Lord, Lord” say many without a hint of reverence and humility (but maybe pomposity). We need to check our use of the language of Zion. It is not there for our convenience but for the right conduct of our tongue. It is an expression of homage.
     In the tale of the builders every sane and sensible life should be constructed on the firm foundation of God’s sure Word. Every other basis for principle and practice is shifting sand. We are encouraged to dig down deep into the self-revelation of our three-person-ed God. Scripture is not a billboard to notice hastily on our rush through life. It summons us to repeated reading; slow digestion of the bread of life; leisured gazing into the text waiting for its message to overwhelm our mind and understanding, marking slowly the message and its hallowed interpretation supplied by the Holy Spirit.
     To know Scripture is to know that we don’t know scripture. Its profundity, loftiness and breadth is overwhelming; its dimensions unbounded. The wisdom of God exhausts our most avid exploration. Its power and hold over us can bring us rebuke that fosters repentance: Its intimations of the grace of God amaze us with Eternal Hope. “To the Word and to the Testimony!”
     William Tyndale avers: “The Scripture is that wherewith God draweth us unto him. The Scriptures sprang out of God, and flow unto Christ, and were given to lead us to Christ. Thou must therefore go along by the Scripture as by a line, until thou come at Christ, which is the way’s end and resting-place.”
     The collect for the Second Sunday in Advent: Blessed Lord, who hast caused holy Scriptures to be written for our learning; Grant that we might in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of thy holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen

RJS

MUSINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE

“I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns too, because that is what I was sent to do.”
Luke 4:43

JESUS PRIORITIZES THE PREACHING OF THE WORD

It is quite clear that Jesus regarded his role as preacher/teacher to be the most important strand of his ministry when among the people for whom he performed merciful works of divine compassion and power. He must, by heavenly compulsion, proclaim the good news of the gospel. He operates under a divine imperative; a personally driven obligation. To proclaim the Word of God summarizes the grand purpose, principally for which he was sent. In his infinite compassion he delighted to heal the suffering of their ailments, the mentally stressed of their plight, but healing and helping were necessary signs to undergird the authority of the divine message he declared. He came with the indisputable warrant of heaven. The occurrence of wonders was to establish conviction in the minds of his hearers. They were Messianic markers
of his identity; supportive acts to the fulfillment of his prophetic assignment. The nature of Christian ministry has not changed.
     It is the case that the nature and priority of contemporary ministry has not changed in its essential intent. The modern pastor is called by the Lord to employ his keenest talents, and devote his prime time, to the preparation and proclamation of the Word. Through the Word heaven itself addresses us, and Almighty God reveals his amazing mind. Study and prayer are the principal private activities of the servant of God; through the truth of sacred Scripture proceeds the feeding of the flock intellectually and in sane piety. There will be other legitimate claims to his time and attention, depending on circumstances, but a sincere and mature congregation ought to be supplied by a range of people equipped with talents that bring parishes to lively every-member ministry. A parish ought to produce some evidence of its actual and specific spiritual calling from the Lord. Not every stated aspiration is suited. Gifts and maturity in the concerns of God need to be discerned. The background and formation of a congregation rule out certain options and suggest others. Some are nondescript and spiritually indifferent and it is pitiable that any urge for the prosperity of the kingdom is not observable.
     Outright nominalism describes the nature of many local Christian communities. Many
gatherings are not attuned to the mind and will of God and are of no benefit to the surrounding populace. Without unity in prayer and a warm and serious devotion to the word on the congregational and domestic scene no Lord’s Day group can announce the kingdom and show forth its dynamic features. Where is the truth and attractiveness in Christian life that radiates the beauty and fascination of the Divine Three. The emphasis on the importance of our personal attitude to the written Word reveals the extent to which we adore God and comply with his will. We actually do happen to treat God himself in exactly the same fashion with which we treat the word, for, invisible as he is, in the word is where we see him and and spend time with him. Our Redeemer is the loveliest and most kind of all persons. The Word cultivates winsome witness to our beguiling Elder Brother.

[The Church. ARTICLE XX Extract]
“Wherefore, although the Church be a witness and keeper of holy Writ, yet, as it ought not to decree anything against the the same, so besides the same ought it not to enforce any thing to be believed for necessity of Salvation.” God has made us the trustees for the integrity of his Word. 

MUSINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE

“Preparing for the Lord a people fit for him.” Luke 1:17. JB

This Lucan phrase aptly captures the entire purpose of all Christian ministry. It is the Lord’s gracious determination to redeem from the fallen mass of mankind a people, selected and cherished, as a special people for himself to mirror and reflect the divine character for his sovereign pleasure and honor. For the sake of compatibility human nature will become a replication of the perfection of the Lord, his likeness, his image conformed to the purity and beauty of the Son  of God, our Lord Jesus Christ. “So angels shall know no man from Christ, so as not to desire to look upon that man’s, face because the most deformed wretch that is there, shall have the very beauty of Christ himself” [John Donne]. This is the splendid destiny of the people of God; not simply rescue from the sinful self or the penalties of an offended God but an elevation to an unimaginable exaltation in union with the Savior. The elect will share in his rule. How is it that total wretches from this depraved world can be assigned to such glory? Angels will be in awe at the transport afforded to mere earthlings from this misery-ridden  planet; creatures destitute of any merit or deserving.
     A fit people for the great I Am would need to possess necessary compatibility for intimate communion with the Lord himself. He is desirous that this donated rapport should be a mean to the receiving of all the multiple benefits of his overflowing goodness and grace. The love between the members of the three persons of the heavenly team (the majestic Three in One), sovereignly undertakes to create numerous recipients of the Lord’s infinite bounty of affectionate generosity. Mankind was created to enjoy God and glorify him forever, as indicated in the Westminster Shorter Catechism. Human life is a gift to facilitate such a marvelous potential. Pure generosity and sheer goodness is the reason for our restored being through saving lovingkindness. God is the lavish donor of all the riches of human existence and pleasing experience. Joy, contentment and absolute security is the heavenly provision for our wicked race emergent from the loins of Adam. God himself, knelt down in huge humility to impart his own breath to the clay model representing the first man. He imparted the kiss of profound intimacy and divine closeness in which mankind was to confidently luxuriate in the unbounded supply of God’s loving largesse.
     John Donne longed for the day when people would never claim to be Lutheran or Calvinist. Jesus is amongst us all, and in his time . . .  these differences amongst Christians and make us of that name, the name of Christian”. However specificity is  seemingly necessary amidst the plethora of varying statements of faith.
     O, may we sincerely yearn, with all believers, to be enrolled in that faith community which is truly fit for the Lord: a people in which he can take delight. It will require maturity and great self denial. The impression we show to the world must be truly worthy if we wish to see many more who desire to exalt the Lord. While we rightly strive to make our confession as throughly biblical as possible let us remember Thomas Cranmer’s holy desire as a chief pastor in his time “to provide a new piety for his people.” -Peter Newman Brooks The Reformation Theologians, edited by Carter Lindberg.
     It was with sincere desire that our beloved Augustinian Reformer was admirably diligent in forming a people fit for the Lord.

​RJS

MUSINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE

Anyone who loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we shall come to him and make a home in him.
John 14:23

Saint Augustine commented that God is nearer to us than we are to ourselves. It is an astonishing assertion. But God is familiar with all the intricacies of our nature, the desires of our affections and the tendencies of our will. We can only take blurred snapshots of our conscious self. Changeability is the mode of our inner life. Our moods are ever moving and developing. Self analysis is mere mental “scampering about”. Options are confusing. Toward minor ones we may exercise indifference but to those that really count we may become cautious and anxious. Genuine wisdom and stability can only come from common grace.
     Special grace, the grace that saves, is utterly transforming. The life of natural man that prefers the absence of God suddenly becomes rapt in him. The relationship between the believer and the triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, becomes one of mutual indwelling. The elect child of God is a being that lives in God.  There is nothing more intimate than “in-ness”. It is an enclosure. Within the Lord it is the reality of residing at the heart and center of the divine affection. We are in the grasp of the one true God - enclosed within his powerful, almighty hand.“I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me [eternal election], is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one” [John 10:28-30].
     When we are in communion with God we have joined the holiest circle of fellowship imaginable. We have been graciously admitted to the most cordial society that far surpasses the privileges of any other association. We are linked in to the compatibility of the threefold Lord to muse upon celestial secrets and mysteries that in this life emerge from the wisdom of Holy Scripture and invite our eager contemplation. Holy contemplation is the beautiful foretaste of heaven. Contemplation of God is our most enriching experience in which the loveliness of Christ is divulged to us. In contemplation he sees us ready for the encounter with the meek, merciful, majestic person of the Son of God.
     Nathanael was in contemplation in his own home (under the fig tree) when the Lord Jesus came to him. It was a gracious and enlightening visit [John 1:43-51]. If only our homes in this life of unnecessary haste were centers of quiet Christian meditation. A quiet, orderly home is a priceless benefit. A happier condition is a peaceful heart. The extraordinary blessing supreme is when the Master of the universe, and all that exists, deigns to occupy his home within us.

​RJS

THE DEAN OF St PAULS AND THE GOSPEL OF St PAUL
JOHN COLET [c. 1466—1519]

Among the nobles of the reign of Henry Tudor, John Colet was among the most noble. His family was privileged and exceedingly wealthy and Colet was educated at Oxford and also in Italy and France. His father, also Henry, was twice Lord Mayor of London and with the generous inheritance he received at his father’s demise Colet was immensely liberal to various causes and needs with the distribution of his ample fortune. Henry VIII regarded Colet as his wisest and most trustworthy advisor whose counsel he always considered most carefully, even when the compulsive monarch instinctively disagreed with Colet’s customary wisdom. 


Colet’s ordination took place in 1497 and he was made Dean of St Paul’s, London 1505. He attained the acme of his ministry in his discourses on the Pauline corpus of the New Testament. The following extract from his addresses on the apostle’s epistle to the Romans capture the fact that Luther’s dramatic message on grace and justification were foreshadowed in England prior to Luther’s doctorate in theology awarded in 1512, a period when brother Martin was acutely anxious concerning his own salvation. Colet’s comments are to be cherished by reformed Anglicans and his ministry is to be celebrated in thanksgiving before God for his loyal and cogent commentary on the Pauline doctrines of salvation which must have been highly influential.  


Salient extracts from John Colet’s Commentary on Paul’s Letter to the Romans [1497]
Chapter 1V: He of his grace imparts himself to those who believe in him, who also have been taken and drawn away by him from unbelief, that they may trust in him alone and believe that by no other means whatever can they be justified than by the divine grace (page 8).


Chapter V: Wherefore St Paul concludes that, being justified by faith, and trusting in God alone, men are reconciled to God through Jesus Christ, and restored to grace, that they may stand before God, and themselves remain sons of God, and look for the certain glory of the sons of God; (page 9). 


Now if there were such force in sin and that to the sin of one man for one man, for destruction, then there ought to be such a greater force and power in grace, for quickening men, and restoring them to an entire and sure salvation.. and that this so, one may discern even from hence; namely whatever grew from one sin for destruction [and there did grow sin manifold and infinite], when the tale thereof was all made up, and the virulence of the disease, as it were, at fever height, then at the same time all-powerful grace, by its prevailing and marvelous force, dispelled it, and destroyed all the sin. For it was mightier to take away the evil when completed, than [the evil] was to begin. Thus it happens that man, being laid hold of by the love and grace of God, and drawn to God, will, if they have hope, be more strongly and firmly sustained and preserved unto life by that same prevailing grace, than they had been thrust down and kept under by sin unto death. Sin is indeed a violent and aggressive thing ; but the glorious power of sweet and pleasant grace, that works softly and marvelously, and with a secret and marvelous effect, nothing can resist [page 10].


…but because men of themselves, such was their own weakness without grace, were unable to otherwise than sin. And so, as sin grew and gathered strength, it was needful, for the healing of mankind, that saving grace should then much more increase and abound; that men, being justified by it, might be able through Jesus to attain eternal life [page 11].


And they who are loved and inspired by God are called, to the end that, having received love, they should in turn love God that loves them, and should long for, and await him in love.This awaiting and this hope come of love. Our love towards him is in truth because he first loved us. As St John writes in his Second Epistle; Not that we first loved God, but that he loved us, even though worthy of no love, as being ungodly and unjust, rightly destined to everlasting destruction. But certain ones, and whom he knew and whom he would, did God love; by loving, called; by calling, by justifying, glorified. This gracious love in God, and charity towards men, is itself their calling and justification and glorifying; nor do we mean anything else by so many terms than one thing, namely, God’s love towards those whom it is his will to love. In like manner, when we say that bygrace men are drawn, are called, are justified, are glorified; we signify nothing else than that men return the love of a loving God [pages 11 & 12].


. . . he is everywhere and present to all, yet does not dwell in and enlighten all, but only those who are predestined by the divine counsel to be enlightened. Upon them, indeed  [that is, upon the surface of their minds] the Spirit works pleasantly and sweetly; and by heating, as it were, and breathing upon them in a way passing our understanding, first thaws and liquifies some little extent of love, and [if we may use such a term in immaterial things like these] in a measure rarifies it, to the end that they may have full light and heat in very inmost depths [page 27]. 


Now, St. Paul himself, in brief and simple language, places all in the mere will and pleasure of God; so as for those alone to come to God whom he calls; whom he has foreordained, purposed, promised, elected and predestinated. We must carefully observe, that in the Apostle’s writings these wordspurpose, promise, elect, and predestinate, mean the same thing; and that God’s purpose among men, his promise, election and predestination, are one and the same; and those whom he has promised to call, and those whom in his purpose and resolution he has called, and those whom he has elected, and those whom he has predestinated to his house and heritage, are the same [page 37].


In this the purpose of God cannot be baffled. For what he has determined and promised in the future, depends not on the wills of men, but on his own power and choice. This is what St. Paul teaches the Jews, when he says that not all the seed of Abraham are children of Abraham, nor all Israelites, who are born of Israel. But they who are so, are promised and chosen by God’s free will; even as Isaac and Jacob were, whilst Ishmael and Esau were disowned and rejected. (Those who have attained to the faith of Abraham) God himself has decreed to be faithful and believing, that is, seeing . . . because through faith they see God. . . . These are called children of the promise and election of God; being verily born,  nay rather re-born, of the promised seed, even Jesus Christ, of whom the Isaac of promise was a type [pages 39-40]. 


Colet’s loyalty to Scripture and Augustine is as clear as crystal and must have been significantly influential in creating a warm reception of Luther’s compositions when these were smuggled through various ports in England.

​

​RJS

MUSINGS ON HOLY SCRIPTURE

Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.
1 John 1:3

When John, the contemplative cousin of Jesus, is about to receive his vision outlined in the book Revelation he receives the invitation of the Lord in words of amazing divine condescension “Come up here” [Revelation 4:1b].  The Lord confers the privilege upon the apostle of being apprised of salvation-process in highly dramatic imagery and apocalyptic configuration. Revelation is equivalent to a tableau in which themes and scenes of sin’s judgment, sinners’ doom, the conquest of evil, and the prevalence of merciful divine intervention are related in a series of symbolic theological detail that prevail, that are ever-present, and yet moving to a convulsive conclusion, shutting down the reign of evil and heralding the universal dominion of the sovereign and righteous God. In the providence of God he has permitted and stored up the challenge of the forces of darkness to crush them at the peak of their fury. At the wane of the flow of history God will prove his omnipotence. He is pleased to wait until Satan gains his utmost strength and craziest boasting and bluster prior to casting him into the deepest and most dismal abyss for evermore.


The call of God proffered to St. John the seer was clearly unique, but the warm invitation to ask earnestly of God and be taught by him is general. “Come up here” is a gracious bidding of the Lord to every believer without exception who cares to respond. The desire of the Lord is to enjoy the company of his people and spoil them with his close attention and beautiful instruction, brimful of wisdom and affection. Such close and intimate connection with him is mutual delight. The Lord wants the fellowship of his people. St Bernard of Clairvaux and his fellow early Cistercian’s knew how to cultivate this closeness of God, and the spirituality of John Calvin is confidently matched to that of Bernard (his and Luther’s favorite church father following Augustine). We recognize two pious Frenchman following the stream of spiritual formation initiated by the former Bishop of Hippo. 


Classic Anglicanism of the Reformation is Augustinian and meant to continue exclusively as such. Where do the Welby’s and Cottrells come from? But so many alien elements are imported into the various editions of spurious Anglicanism foisted upon us in our day. It is enough to make Augustinians weep. But we go far further than fellowship with saints and theologians. Look at our ever available attachment to the Lord mediated by prophets and apostles in the testimony of the Word. Our ultimate fellowship, yet the first at hand, is with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ. All subsidiary spiritual companionship is meant to enhance and strengthen our bonding with the Lord. We are looking for this bonding with the Lord in our fellow confessors of the gospel and we are under obligation to provide genuine togetherness in the Spirit with every member of the family of God. When Mary called on Elizabeth the expectant mother of John the Baptist the baby leapt in her womb. We should be drawn to the regenerate with the leap of our hearts and the embrace of our outstretched arms.  We should steadfastly linger in the heavenly places with Christ [Ephesians 2:6] where we are seated through his resurrection. We are a people of devotion to a sweet and regnant Lord. 


In Revelation 3:20 the Lord Jesus is portrayed as earnestly seeking our attention knocking at the door of our heart. This is not a reference to conversion but an appeal for restored fellowship with a believer whose ardor for companionship with the Savior has seriously cooled. “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and will dine with him, and he with me.” The passage does not advert to a gentle knock of short duration, but to a knocking that is persistent and very audible. The desire of God is for a keen time of fellowship enjoyed leisurely over a superb meal. To share a table was of huge significance in ancient culture. God does not want to hurry our occasions of closeness with himself.

RJS


It is so wide a thing that God alone in all his fulness can fill a human heart.
John “Rabbi” Duncan.              


There is reason to fear that professing Christians in general, and even ministers of the gospel, are too apt to rest satisfied  with very vague and indefinite conceptions of the person of Christ, and to contemplate him too much merely in general as a glorious and exalted being, who came down from heaven to save sinners, without distinctly regarding him as being at once very God and very man,—a real possessor of the divine nature, and at the same time as truly and fully a partaker of flesh and blood like ourselves. This is the view given us in Scripture of the person of our Redeemer; and it is only when this view of his person, in all its completeness, is understood and realized, that we are truly honoring the Son, and that we are at all fitted to cherish and express the feelings and to discharge the duties of which he is the appropriate object,—to love him with all our hearts, at once as our Creator and our elder Brother,—to rest in him alone for salvation,—to yield ourselves unto him as alive from the dead,—and to rely with implicit confidence on his ability and willingness to make all things work together for our welfare, and to admit us at length into his own presence and glory.

​The Person of Christ, Historical Theology, Vol One, page 320, William Cunningham, Banner of Truth.

MUSINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE

And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.
1 John 1:3b
​
Thomas Chalmers, the great Scottish theologian (man of science also), preacher and church leader of the 19th century was conspicuously a humble man. Folk were in awe of him and yet it appears from several biographies read decades ago that he was a very endearing person [Solid Ground Christian Books carries two volumes of his Sunday thoughts]. One of the great man’s pastoral themes was to remind believers not to live beneath their privileges. Always he was encouraging Christians to remember their entitlements in Christ, and especially their access to communion with the Father through the advocacy of the Redeemer. We are members of a high and holy circle. We are drawn into the “Holy Club” of the Holy Trinity. The most sacred society of all has elevated us to be participants in and to the unimaginable favor of uniting with them in the intimacy and harmony of round-table discourse and the comfort of close cordial companionship. As confirmed “worldlings” we would not have gained a peep through the curtained window, and frankly we wouldn’t have minded, so base were our attitudes in the ways of the world and of pleasing of self. In reality, to us, there was no God (at least worth bothering about). Every thought, aspiration, word of ours was of the earth, “earthy”. The visible and touchable was our pre-occupation - humanity and its manufacturings mental and material.


The Gospel of Jesus Christ raises us to the foretaste of heaven and not just faintly and vaguely. The strongest inducements come from the Word of the Father, the grace of the Son, and the influence of the Holy Spirit. Heaven comes to earth whenever God is near or palpably present, and with his eye on the resurrection and the following ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ the apostle urges us to appreciate and enjoy the very deep and rich fellowship accessible to believers through the the Father and the Son. It is the sweetest and most satisfying union available to humankind forgiven of sin and freed from satanic enslavement and self-gratification afforded by ungodly taste and behavior. 


The fellowship here is the guarantee of eternal life to come. It is superior by far to any other attachment. We are held forever by the hand of our Redeemer and our Maker - the undying affection and support of the Creator of life and the Rescuer of rebels foolishly fighting their way to deserved execution. Hosanna in the highest! Through grace alone we have been promoted to the very acme, summit of relationship with God. To describe it as royal elevation is far too short of the mark. In divine estimation we are jewels beyond worth and precious above evaluation. When we forget we are the purchase of “divine blood” and live below the dignity assigned to us by God we are cheapening the coal pressured into diamonds by the saving strength of the Lord. When we know our value to God, perhaps some of that gleam would shine through us, sustained by our fellowship with the Father and with his Son.

​RJS

​
"We can no more be severed, than he can be severed from himself."
Bishop Joseph Hall

MUSINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE

For I am gentle and humble in heart.
Matthew 11:29.

​The Humility of God.
This musing’s title is truly incredible. Just to think of God’s perfection, his exceedingly great titles, qualities and amazing attributes, all exercised through his awesome sovereignty; this line of thought takes us by surprise when we learn that the Lord of stunning and bright shining majesty should present himself before us in gentle humility. He, robed in terrifying brilliance and majesty, appears to mankind in humble guise. It is his gracious will to do so, and sample after sample of his lofty dignity being laid low before us appears in the condescension of his precious Word that lisps (Calvin) his nature and purpose to we who seek him in his astounding self-revelation. The Bible is his mode of communication and the blessed Trinity speaks to humble minds and hearts through the Holy Spirit. Heavenly wisdom and truth for our redemption and glorification is translated by the divine inner voice to our understanding as the heavenly Gift (Augustine) himself illuminates the eyes of the soul of the genuinely humble reader as they scan the terrain of truth laid out before them, pursuant through the map of salvation that points the way from this world of death to the radiant City of Life. Every detail of God’s rescue and redemption comes our way and benefits us through our Maker’s humility. 
     The Incarnation itself, that commences our Lord Jesus’ ministry on earth, is extraordinary and incomprehensible humility. God becomes human in Mary’s supernatural Son as the Son of God taking upon himself and clothing himself in our nature. In Bethlehem the God-Man joins our race in simplicity without ceremony. The Christ is born in a space where normally animals are stalled. The first to hear the tidings of this wondrous birth are the shepherds, the roaming rogues and outcasts of society, often light-fingered in the properties and homes around their chosen resting place - the shepherds that no one trusts or believes. These are the ruffians who hear the exultant angels sing the announcement, and waking bleary-eyed discern the vast and gleaming choir of the heavens above. The lowest class of working society are privileged to be the first visitors to the newborn King.
     The theme of humility unfurls throughout the whole New Testament. When Jesus eventually fulfills his ministry he goes to the poor dwelling quarters of the notoriously unworthy, mingles with the miserably sick and the impoverished while the religious leaders and those who convene at the public means of grace, such as the temple or synagogue, only deal with the penitent and needy when they are meekly approached by them for acceptance. The troubled and those who lead disapproved lives are not diligently sought out for redemption and comfort - only those who quit the cover of the neglected areas and the slums. Jesus was a familiar and surprising visitor to the wretched, helpless and hopeless. 
     In the apostolic continuation of the ministry of Jesus the apostle Paul relates in his letter to believers at Corinth the continuation of the humility of God in reaching out to the insignificant and overlooked folk of the populace. “Brothers, think of what you were when you were called (divine election). Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many of you were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him (effectual call) that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: ”Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”
     Who is our boast? There is, sadly, a tendency to boast of achievement among some members of God’s people; much rivalry for top position— whether as author, academic, preacher, or local church leader and the aim is prominence. And sadly, the exclusivity in fashionable and classy congregations, is an offense to the gospel. How many angels have been turned away, and what reports do they bring to heaven?
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RJS